Monday/Tuesday Oct 11/12 - Couer d'Alene to Orofino, ID

On Monday we enjoyed exploring downtown Couer d'Alene and retraced our route back to Post Falls to attend a Buck Knives factory tour (street view photo of factory here).  Both fun and interesting, as was a stop at the nearby Cabellas store.

On Tuesday we visited both Princeton and Harvard as well as several other small rural towns on our 140 mile journey (map here) from our condo in Couer d'Alene to Orofino, Idaho.  I'm sure there is a story behind the naming of those two little hamlets but I haven't researched them yet.  Orofino, on the other hand, is full of interesting history as the place that Lewis and Clark left their horses for the winter and built 5 dugout canoes departing downstream on October 5, 1805, just 205 years and 7 days ago!  Within 55 years gold was discovered in the area which led to the initial growth/popularity  of the area.  We arrived in Orofino early enough to visit the local museum -- and had a good laugh watching many locals at the nearby Napa store staring out the window at our diminutive car.

The beauty of the scenery and the sunny weather was spectacular but we did have a minor scrape with some road trash today.  On a straight section of roadway, I noticed a tent-shaped item in the roadway without sufficient time to avoid it and hoping that I would clear it.  Well, I didn't clear it and it lodged underneath the frame of the car necessitating an immediate stop and some on-the-ground time retrieving it.  Not exactly sure what this hard plastic item was -- though it does have a toll-free number inscribed on it (I'll call tomorrow just out of interest).  No permanent damage was done and we were on our way pretty quickly.  I posed this photo of the item in front of the car so you can see what I am writing about.

As prearranged, we easily found a newish Best Western and settled in for a comfortable evening with wonderful view of the Clearwater River off our balcony.

It was fun to think of what it must have been like for Lewis and Clark 205 years ago -- though for sure it was much different as the area didn't yet have the nearby 3rd highest dam in the US.

On to McCall, Idaho tomorrow -- another easy 140 miles -- where we have yet another Worldmark condo reserved for a couple nights (off season rate of $46.50 a night).